From the AP News regarding Robert Blake:

Earlier witnesses in the preliminary hearing have testified Blake wanted Bakley killed.

William Welch, a retired police homicide detective who did private investigative work for Blake, said the actor told him in 1999 that he wanted Bakley "whacked." And veteran stuntman Gary McLarty testified Thursday that Blake offered him $10,000 to "pop" Bakley and proposed a scenario in which she would be killed outside a restaurant.

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I saw William Welch on televison and he testified that he was asked by Blake to "whack" Bonnie Lee Bakley.
Okay so a retired Homicide Detective is offered money to kill someone and he didn't report this to the LAPD?!!!!!!!!!!!!??????  He could have saved this woman from being killed.  Instead he waits until AFTER she is killed to come forward with this????

Isn't it against the law to not report when someone offers to pay you to kill someone?????   Will the homicide detective be legally culpable for his lack of taking appropriate measures to report this and protect Ms Bakly?  I am truly apalled.



-- Modified on 3/1/2003 12:04:46 AM

I'm not a cop, but as a lawyer can answer your question.  You're correct.  Theoretically (because you never know once you get in front of a jury), the cop could be liable/guilty for civil/criminal negligence.  Civil negligence requires a) the defendant owe a duty to the injured party, b) a breach of that duty, c) causation (i.e. the cops failure to notify others was a cause of the woman's death), and d) injury.  A person in the cop's position owed a duty to Blake's wife to act as a reasonable person would under the circumstances.  A reasonable person likely would have reported Blake's soliciation to the authorities and he breached the duty by not doing so.  The causation issue is a closer one.  Since it is a likely that the wife's death could have been prevented by such a disclosure by the cop, causation may exist.

State's laws vary with regard to criminal negligence, so it depends on the statute in California.

...I for one hope it doesn't turn out to be another media circus like the OJ trial did!  Unfortunately, it's beginning to look as if there's a possibilty.  Curious thing caught my attention on the news, probably it means nothing & is just a trivial observation, but the lead investigator is named Ito.  Remember the dipstick judge that presided over OJ fiasco?

...that stroke of brilliance allowing a writer to mosey around an active crime scene, handling evidence?

because Detective Ito was disappointed that with all the work he did on the Nicole Brown Simpson murder, that he didn't get any publicity

What a F*ing ego...

Well he's getting publicity now!